Before the arenas, the complex storylines, the naked guys on the album covers--heck, even before The Chimes--there was this album. Full of energy, borderline annoying, and struggling to find its sound in the way only a debut record can, Rush was an 8-song necessary first step for the legendary "Canadian power trio." [I was legally required to say that]
Anyway, this is a decent first album, I must say. Mostly straight-ahead rock with a couple slower numbers thrown in for good measure. Unfortunately, no lyrics (to this day, I still can't decipher the specifics of the guy's day in "Working Man"), but some longhaired rock-god-wannabe photos of the group. Geddy Lee (such a special bass player to me) Alex Lifeson (a man whose guitar playing once caused my friend Keith to say "Oh, Alex," in a really funny voice) and John Rutsey (who as you know only appeared on this album).
My only other introductory comments are: I love the font the titles are done in, for some reason I find it funny that their roadies are named Ian and Liam, and it's incredibly cool that a female dj was the one who first started playing WM on her radio show! So yea girl power, essentially.
On to the track-by-track (speaking of "track," wouldn't you just love to find this album on 8-track? I know I would).
Finding My Way I like how this one starts, with the guitar in your left ear, slowly creeping into the right channel, a drumbeat/crash, a few preliminary yells and we're into it. At this point I'd like to say that 75% of the song titles have 3 words with the remainder being 2-word titles. Ok.....this is a good song, just not really one of my favorites. Brilliant way to start the album, in any event. The last thing about this song is that it sounds like he's singing "Ooh Shayna," and Shayna was my neighbors' dog.
Need Some Love This, along with ITM, is one of the few Rush tunes that deals with, um, *girls*. I just think that's funny. (I think in "Superconductor" and "Nobody's Hero" there are verses with "she" but it's not quite the same.) This is the shortest song on the album, but it's still kind of cool in an assertive young male, pre-punk sort of way. It somewhat reminds me of early Aerosmith, in both the lyrics and bass/guitar riff.
Take A Friend Another fade-in intro ("Hey listen to this, guys, you slide this lever and the music gets louder or softer ") Ok I apologize for that pathetic use of formatting tags. I was just trying to be a big man in front of the kids! There are some interesting echo-effects on the chorus. And of course the requisite solo. This is a surprisingly good song to listen to when you're having one of those "I hate all my friends" days; you feel like "Heck, I'll jsut go get new friends, and um, take 'em somewhere. Yeah, that's the ticket." Interesting quasi-tough guy lyric--"Let me put it to ya nice."
Here Again This song is somewhat depressing so naturally it's also the longest. I haven't quite figured out what it's about yet...my guess is it has something to do with the rootless existance of young musicians, but don't quote me on that. Sometime I'll listen to it more closely and then perhaps I'll have a better idea. It makes me want to say "This is a power ballad, so come on and feel the power!" or something like that.
What You're Doing Before buying this CD, I'd only heard the live version of this song. If I'm not mistaken, it's ATWAS's contribution to Chronicles. So I had great anticipation for hearing the studio version, to compare the two. The echo thing is a bit distracting, otherwise it's a lovely "take that" of sorts to The Man. But you'd probably feel like an idiot singing it at 40.
In the Mood No, not a rework of the Glenn Miller swing classic (although that would be cool, you have to admit...) just a funny little song about a guy trying to pick up chicks by functioning as the first half of Time and Temp. When I first heard this song, on Different Stages, it caused me to say "the Heck!?" because it didn't sound like much of a Rush song. But I think it fits on this album. And I like the cowbell.
Before and After For some reason, I couldn't remember the name of that song, so I had to open my CD drive and read it! I'm so pathetic. This song is the one that probably best foreshadows the longer-format songs that would become a trademark o f the band and impress folks such as those guys from Metallica. It was in the liner notes of Garage, Inc., so it must be true =) The instrumental intro is very cool and peaceful. I can picture a bunch of kids dancing to it at some low-rent 70's prom. It's the way my mind works, I'm sorry. The second part of the song is great, too. Kind of a jam-session feel to it. As always, driven by the almighty riff. As you know, I tend to shy away from Yes/Rush comparisons, but I just want to point out that o n their debut album, Yes had a song called "Beyond and Before." Get it? Beyond and Before....Before and After....great fun.
Working Man One of my all-time favorite Rush songs. Whenever I hear that great intro on the radio, I'm compelled to listen all the way through. When I first started liking this song, I thought 7 minutes was long for a song.....my, how foolish
I was. Somehow, this song is still appealing even if you don't have a job. And it kicks Styx's "Blue Collar Man" squarely in the butt for top song of the genre.
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